Black sued for $260m, sacked as chairman

Media company Hollinger International's special investigations committee said yesterday it had begun legal proceedings against media tycoon Conrad Black to recover $US200 million ($A260 million) in payments, damages and interest and that the company had sacked Lord Black from his post as chairman.

Reports also emerged that Lord Black was negotiating with British billionaires Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay to effectively sell his key stake in Hollinger International.

The suit claimed that group parent company Hollinger, Lord Black and others "diverted and usurped corporate assets and opportunities from the company through systematic breaches of fiduciary duties", the committee announced.

The committee said its suit, filed in New York following the committee's probe into payments to Lord Black, detailed related-party transactions that had damaged the company: "non-competition agreements" and excessive management fees.

It alleged conduct including payment of "unauthorised, unjustified or unwarranted amounts" to the defendants and alteration of company books and records to "provide a pretext for, or to conceal, such actions, misrepresenting or omitting to provide material information in statements to the company's independent directors or to public shareholders".

Lord Black has previously denied any wrongdoing and agreed to repay the fees, pending the outcome of investigations.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission said it had won a court order upholding the power of the Hollinger International internal investigators to keep working "without regard to whether there is a change in control at the company".

The order aims to block what investigators perceived were moves by Lord Black to circumvent the special committee.

The SEC has mounted its own investigation into claims that Lord Black and his lieutenants pocketed payments that had not been approved by the board of the publicly owned company.

The Hollinger International-controlled Telegraph newspaper has reported that the Barclay Brothers, the billionaire owners of London's Ritz Hotel and The Scotsman newspaper, are close to effectively acquiring a controlling stake in Hollinger International for £230 million ($A542 million).

The brothers were reported as negotiating directly with Lord Black to buy Ravelston, a private company controlled by Lord Black that owns 78 per cent of Hollinger.